Aiden Slattery

Name: Aiden "Beaks" Slattery

Gender: Male

Age: 18

Grade: 12

School: Cochise High School

Hobbies and Interests: Fencing, puzzles, table tennis, karaoke, bicycling

Appearance: Standing at 5'3" and weighing 110 pounds, Aiden is rather short for his age and barely avoids being underweight, therefore having a very scrawny, almost lanky physique. He has a decent amount of muscle on him, due to regularly engaging in sportive activites in his free time, though not very defined and much less noticeable due to his lack of body fat. When sucking in his stomach or inhaling sharply, most of his ribcage is visible underneath his skin.

His skin is of a creamy white yet somewhat tanned color, due to him spending a lot of time outside in his free time. An incident in his childhood left a thin yet noticeable scar on the underside of his left forearm, running from his elbow all the way down to his wrist.

Aiden has dark brown hair, which is arranged to resemble an angular fringe style of haircut, covering up most of his forehead and partly his left eye. His eyebrows are thin and narrow and of a slightly lighter brown than his hair. The gap between them and his eyes is notably large, due to the latter being located a tad lower on his face than on the average person. Furthermore, his eyes are shaped almond like and a bit angular with a slight squint, giving his appearance a minor Asian touch. They are colored grey with hints of blue mixed in.

His nose is rather broad, arched downwards and strikingly pointy with flat, wide nostrils that nestle the side of the nose, earning him the nickname "Beaks" during his childhood years. Aiden's ears are rather small in size and his right one is missing a small chunk of its earlobe, a remnant from an incident during his high school years. His lips are both rather slim and palish in color, with the lower one being slightly more prominent and rounded. A small patch of hair runs down from the bottom of his lower lip towards his chin, where it merges with a small, properly cut goatee. Apart from that, he always remains clean shaven. His face is overall very slender and elongated, with hollow cheeks and a strongly pronounced jawline.

Aiden prefers a laid back style of clothing, though he doesn't shy away from trying out rather flamboyant outfits from time to time. It should also be noted that he rarely seems to get cold, often wearing nothing but a short-sleeved T-shirt as a top, even during winter. There don't appear to be any prevalent colors influencing his choice of clothing as his outfits vary from garish to dull in terms of color. One accessory he can't seem to forgo is his wrist watch, which is colored silver and has a small, black cross engraved on its side.

On the day of his abduction, Aiden was wearing a palish yellow t-shirt with a white dolphin depicted on its center. He also wore a light blue jeans, which is slightly torn around the knees, as well as his favorite wrist watch and a beige pair of Reebok Classics. He also had a pillbox containing medication, namely Ritalin on him, stored away in the right pocket of his jeans.

Biography: Aiden was born on the 12th of June 1997, the second of three children to Seamus Slattery and his wife Norma Baxter. Aiden's parents first met when his mother visited a distant relative in Dublin for four months, just having gotten her degree in economics and being in dire need of vacation. Said relative was also a close friend and roommate of Seamus Slattery. After quickly falling in love with him and committing to a relationship, Norma eventually convinced her future husband to move to the United States, in order for them to get married and commence their collective life. One year later, the two entered into the bond of marriage in Yuma, Arizona, Norma's place of birth. Aiden's mother has since given birth to three children, namely Aiden's older sister Sharon, who is 23 years old, Aiden himself and finally his brother Sean, who is 14 years of age.

From the very start, Aiden and his older sister got along really well. Sharon spent as much time with her baby brother as she could and often put her own interest aside in favor of his. In doing so she, alongside her mother, was the one to assist him with taking his first steps and was also present for Aiden to speak his first word, which was him trying to pronounce his sister's name.

During his years as a toddler, Aiden soon turned out to be the exact opposite of his sister in terms of personality. While she showed great patience and generosity, he was exceedingly grumpy, quick to throw a fit when things didn't go his way and incredibly attention demanding, even for someone his age. This lead to problems at his kindergarten, as most of the personnel was not willing to put up with Aiden's antics, forcing his parents to send him to a different preschool, not once but twice. The birth of his brother Sean proved to equally problematic, since Aiden would not be willing to tolerate his parents and sister giving his brother more attention than him. Seeing no other favorable solution, his parents hired a governess to take care of him shortly after his fifth birthday, a decision which paid off greatly. One of her primary tactics to get him to be more calm was providing him with overly simple, colorful puzzles, which he took great delight in putting together. This would later become one of his favorite hobbies and help him relieve stress. Within a year, Aiden changed mostly for the better, learning to be more patient and indulgent and even building up a better relationship with his baby brother.

Aiden was quick to befriend people during his first year of elementary school, establishing himself as the class clown from the get-go. Once he realized how much his age mates enjoyed his shenanigans, he soon developed a new, somewhat malign side to himself. He would go so far as to brew and spread mischief when and wherever he could, mostly to the expense of less popular classmates. He quickly became one of the most popular kids in his class, simultaneously earning a reputation as a vile prankster and troublemaker among his teachers. This in turn lead to conflicts with his parents, his father in particular, who insisted Aiden take school more seriously.

This time, it was his sister who helped him make a step in the right direction. Since she and Aiden had never ceased being incredibly close, he trusted her above all else and was willing to listen to her advice concerning his behavior. Though it took him some time, he was able to somewhat tone down his mischievous spirits and get on his teacher's good side again yet remained restless, constantly talked during classes and still had difficulties processing what information he was given.

It was also during this time that people around him started referring to him as Beaks, thanks to the unusual shape of his nose. Though he initially insisted on the nickname Hawk instead, the former stuck and as a result, Aiden eventually got used to being called Beaks; so much in fact, that he deliberately asked people to call him that during later years of school and still retains the name to this day.

Throughout his first years of school, Aiden continuously showed signs of being hyperactive, having trouble concentrating or getting rest. At the age of nine, he was eventually diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD for short. Following this discovery, his popularity in school notably dropped, many of his classmates beginning to shun him for being weird in their eyes and even fearing he was contagious, causing him a great deal of grief. In response, his parents and siblings supported him the best they could, ensuring Aiden got the treatment he needed in order to counteract his disorder.

At first, he was given medication only, mainly Ritalin, while simultaneously conducting a sort of therapy with his sister, who would assist and supervise him with his homework and subject material as often as she could, once again reinforcing the inseparable bond between the two. Though generating generally positive results, medication alone proved to not be sufficient in order to completely aid him in his situation.

Eventually, they chose to apply so called "Green Therapy", having Aiden spend a lot of time outside, preferably in green spaces such as parks and forests. This turned out to be the most effective means of therapy for him yet, since he not only greatly enjoyed the process itself, but was actually able to concentrate better after having been exposed to nature for a good while. Though he still takes medication to this day, being outside has ever since been his primary way of dealing with his condition. When at home, he often sits down and solves jigsaw puzzles, which helps him calm himself, relieve stress and focus on tasks. As of his eleventh birthday, Aiden also regularly goes on bike trips as extension of his "Green Therapy", often accompanied by his sister, father or both. This sport in particular seem to suit his needs really well, since it allows him to spin out his excess of energy and experience nature at the same time.

Over the course of the years, Aiden has given many different types of sports and leisure activities a try, among them Soccer, Ultimate Frisbee and tap dance, though none of these could manage to enthrall him. When celebrating his sixteenth birthday, his parents gifted both him and his brother Sean with the membership of a local fencing club, a pastime that Aiden had expressed interest in several times in the past. Not only did both he and Sean warm up rather quickly to the sport itself, but also forged a stronger brotherly bond in doing so, since the relationship between the two had been rather noncommittal up to this point. Aiden's interest in fencing quickly turned into an obsession and about half a year after joining the club, it became his favorite of all his hobbies, though his true fencing skill remains rather amateurish to this day. One other sport he enjoys to this day is table tennis, which he took an interest in after his family moved to Kingman. He was introduced to it through one of the new friends he made and continues to play alongside said friend, though to a lesser rate than fencing, namely about twice a month.

As for his scholastic achievements, Aiden had great trouble keeping up and processing the subject material during his first few years of elementary school. unsurprisingly so considering his condition. After his treatment was initialized and with the additional help of several special classes, his grades began improving slightly just before the end of his last year of grade school.

Though his struggle with education continued into middle school, Aiden was nonetheless both willing and able to ultimately pull through, although he had to repeat his second year on the new school. Lucky for him, two of his closer friends had to repeat the year as well, leaving him with a few familiar faces in his new class. Him having to repeat the turn also made him the subject of mockery among his new classmates at first, though after he proved to be largely indifferent to their taunts, this quickly stopped.

His determination to achieve educational success was mostly inspired by his sister Sharon, who once again assisted him with most of his scholastic work, which she had sufficient time for, due to her being an outstanding pupil and therefore having no problems tutoring her little brother. At the time he enrolled on Cochise High School, Aiden had reached a certain level of educational independence, though only sufficient to keep him from failing most tests, his grades still remaining below average to this day. Even so, his family is very proud of him, considering his transition from an almost pernicious daredevil to a still mischievous, but somewhat diligent young man.

Aiden's social life can be described as rather varying. After leaving elementary school and starting to attend middle school, he tried his best not relapse or change back to his old behavioral pattern. Despite his best efforts, he remained an overly energized boy, who couldn't keep his own mouth shut for his sake or that of his classmates. He also had troubles with hearing people out, since he would constantly interrupt them in order to voice his own opinion or even say completely unrelated things. While this earned him the disdain of some, he still remained somewhat popular with the other boys in his class. He would still occasionally resort to playing pranks on people he couldn't get along with, though the nature of his pranks was far less harmful than of those in his earlier years, though they would still get him into trouble at times.

The most poignant example is an incident that occurred when Aiden was thirteen. Alongside two of his more trusted companions, he tried to trespass on the local junk yard one night, as part of a bet he had made with a rival of his. While entering the compound by climbing over a fence, he lost balance and fell onto a strand of loose wire, which penetrated his arm and left an elongated, narrow wound from his left elbow all the way down to his wrist. Following this, Aiden had to be hospitalized for several days. In addition, his father saw himself forced to limit his personal freedom to a certain limit, such as prohibiting him from being outside of his home after ten, in order to prevent similar incidents from happening.

Over the years, Aiden had also developed a somewhat puckish sense of humor and would often find joy in the misery of others, a trait he still displays to this day. Due to him often being less than affable, he initially had trouble keeping friends, since many, while finding him to be fun to spent time with, were still put off by this particular trait, though he was eventually able to establish a circle of friends around him who were willing to tolerate it. It should be noted that Aiden was and sometimes still is unaware of the impression he leaves behind, since he is often unable to recognize when he has gone too far in terms of trying to humor himself.

Shortly before the end of his middle school career, Aiden's parents made the decision to move out of their hometown Yuma and to Kingman because his mother had found new employment as a management assistant in an advertising agency seated near Kingman. Seamus Slattery had no objections to this plan, since he was working as a freelance author of political novels at the time - and still is to this day, with moderate success - therefore being able to continue his work even after moving. Though Aiden was initially more than unwilling to move away, he eventually made peace with his parents' decision, finding solace in his sister's consoling words. He remains in touch with most of his of companions from his time in Yuma to this day, visiting his hometown ever once in a while.

After moving to Kingman, Aiden enrolled on Cochise High School for his freshman year, confident that he was able to graduate with enough of his own effort and support from his family. Once he adjusted himself to his new home and environment, he slowly began making new friends, which was made easier by the fact that his mischievous tendencies gradually toned down as he grew older, though they never completely faded. One boy in particular, Jerry Ferguson, would soon become his new best friend in town, which was surprising considering they initially despised each other, but grew closer after attending a first aid course together. He was the one to introduce Aiden to table tennis, one of his main hobbies. Even though the two tend to argue quite a lot and about rather insignificant topics, they always manage to become reconciled in the end. On his seventeenth birthday, Aiden accompanied Jerry to a karaoke bar, much to their mutual delight. Albeit being a less than stellar singer, he still decided he wanted to do this on a regular basis and ever since, he and his best friend give said karaoke bar a visit on free weekends. This also lead to Aiden developing the habit to sing while showering, much to his parents' chagrin.

He has no real plans concerning his choice of occupational direction yet, his current goal being to simply successfully complete his last year of high school. In order to help him with the former, his parents have repeadetly made him participate in career counseling, though without noteworthy results thus far. Despite this, Aiden retains an optimistic belief regarding his own future.

Aiden has never shown great interest in affairs of the heart, though has made efforts to find a girlfriend on numerous occasions. While this resulted in him having a few flings, he was never able to enter a serious relationship to this day, since his nature tends to annoy most girls he tries to flirt with. Even the few who took a liking to him despite his flaws were eventually put off by his tendency to play tricks on them, a habit he could never unlearn. Even so, Aiden doesn't show any signs of being particularly upset about these failures.

In general, Aiden can be described as an often good-natured, but very ebulliant and somewhat wayward person. He keeps up an overly enthusiastic and confident attitude most of the time, even when being reprimanded by others. His demeanor can furthermore be described as rather impervious, as he tends to not pay too much attention to others' opinions, particularly on his behavior, save for that of his sister. This also results in him rarely becoming irritated, as he tends to shrug off most insults directed towards him with a laugh.

He tends to talk a lot and in a rather fast pace, while displaying some verbal tics, such as regularly asking "You with me?" once he finishes a sentence, even more so when explaining something to someone else. His voice is rather high and strident, but gets softer when he is talking calmly, which is most often the case when he is around his sister.

Aiden is not to good at picking up any kind of signals from other people, be it positive or negative ones, which leads to him bemusing many of those he converses with. As a consequence, he is not the best judge of character and fails to recognize other people's intents most of the time. When becoming nervous or agitated, he usually swears a lot.

He has a very deep affection towards his family, particularly his sister Sharon, which he outright adores and views more as a second mother than anything else. The silver wrist watch, which he always wears, was gifted to him by her on his fourteenth birthday and has since been his lucky charm. This affection of his also tends to become a problem, however. While Aiden only gets upset on very rare occasions, even jokingly insulting his family, especially his sister, will result in him flying into a rage.

One event in particular should be mentioned here, namely an incident that occurred shortly after he had completed his first year at Cochise. During break, while in a conversation with Bradley Floyd, a classmate of his who he was on bad terms with, the latter repeatedly called Aiden's sister a whore, even after receiving a warning to back down. As a result, Aiden threw himself at him and the two of them got into a scuffle that only ended when two teachers intervened. The two remained mostly uninjured, however, save for several bruises and one injury in particular: During their fight, Aiden's opponent had violently torn off the earring that the former always wore on his right ear, causing a small chunk of the ear to come off. Following this, Aiden narrowly avoided being expelled from school due to witnesses confirming that the other boy had repeatedly provoked him and had apparently been looking for a fight, as well as the school administration taking his disorder into account. His reputation still suffered from this, however, and people generally try to avoid enraging him ever since that day.

Though Aiden's parents considered pressing charges against the other boy at first, Sharon was able to convince both them and Aiden to settle things with the family of Bradley themselves. Eventually, this led to both families coming to a mutual agreement and parting on neutral terms. Aiden however, still despises Bradley to this day and has since avoided any sort of contact.

Despite being of partly Irish descent, Aiden has never been to Ireland once in his life and as a result, he has yet to meet any relatives on his father's side in person for the first time, though he regularly talks to them over the phone. He has also never left the border of the United States before, having spent all of his life in Arizona and occasionally visiting family members of his in the New England states, together with his parents and siblings.

Advantages: Aiden has a lot of energy and fairly good condition, meaning he will not be tired out by physical tasks too quickly, as well as being very agile due to his slender build. Also, while he is not a skilled fighter by any means, he becomes almost completely unchecked when really agitated, meaning he is still quite dangerous when encountered in close combat.

Disadvantages: Aiden has no real way of telling whether or not someone tells the truth, being a bad judge of character and generally unable to guess the intentions of other people. While this does not mean that he is gullible, he can still be more easily manipulated. Furthermore, since his weak point, namely his sister, is pretty much public knowledge ever since the incident involving him attacking one of his schoolmates, anyone can take advantage of him by purposely making him furious. Lastly, Aiden is still partly dependant on his medication, meaning that after a certain amount of time without consuming it, he will suffer from numerous withdrawal symptoms, among them nausea, anxiety, lethargy and irritability.

Designated Number: Male student No. 029

---

Designated Weapon: Haladie

Conclusion: Some of the guys and I have this betting pool going called the 'Hunga Munga Challenge'. It's all about a pool to see which assigned weapon gets the user killed/maimed first. Congrats, B029! You're the recipient of my pick for this version. Try fencing with THAT, why don't you! - Dennis Lourvey

'The above biography is as written by Rorick Skyve. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: Rorick Skyve, D/N

Kills: None

Killed By: Matthew Moradi

Collected Weapons: Haladie (assigned weapon), Mossberg 590 (from Serena Waters, to Matthew Moradi)

Allies: Scarlett McAfee, Melanie Beckett, Serena Waters

Enemies: Nancy Kyle, Alvaro Vacanti, Matthew Moradi

Mid-game Evaluation: Aiden woke in the regular wards. He was determined to believe their present situation was a sick joke or prank and ranted at the camera on that assumption, before taking off to find others and make sure nothing bad happened. This led him to the solitary cells, where he found Barry Banks, Scarlett McAfee, Tina Luz, and Jonathan Gulley. He greeted them casually and tried to get them to agree with his assessment of the situation being fake, but only Scarlett was inclined to go along with his plan to expose the 'fraud'. He wasn't interested in Barry or Jon's plans, he would welcome them if they followed but he decided it was most important to leave the building as soon as possible.

He and Scarlett moved down the stairs, while Aiden did his best to comfort a distraught Scarlett while avoiding admitting to the truth of the matter. They ran into Raina Rose, Alice Baker, and Johnny McKay, the latter most one of Aiden's close friends. Their attempts to even casually warn Aiden about other dangers possibly on island got him defensive, trying to make them see the situation from his perspective of denial. But unfortunately Raina, Alice, and Johnny were instead able to turn it around on Aiden and force him to admit the truth, and he begins to sob openly in despair. A guilty Alice flees the scene, and the others aren't sure how to handle Aiden as he tries to summon his composure. However the tolling of the bell, the second one caused by Barry Banks, causes Scarlett to impulsively run off after it. Aiden felt he had to protect her, so he ran off with the assurance that he'd meet Johnny and Raina again.

He ran through the intensive wards, trying to catch up with Scarlett. This ran him straight into the confrontation between Scarlett and Nancy Kyle, who had already inflicted one blow on Scarlett with her hatchet. Aiden was stunned, frozen by the sight of the violence and Scarlett's blood. He couldn't force himself to react when Nancy charged at him, and Scarlett was forced to sacrifice herself to save him. Nancy ran off, leaving a mortally wounded Scarlett in Aiden's arms. Aiden begged her to live, but Scarlett could only manage a belated confession of love before breathing her last. He continued to try to weakly get her back, but eventually even he was forced to admit she was dead.

He carried her body to another room in the intensive ward, laid her on a bed and watched over her the whole night. He struggled with his thoughts and fear, with his inability to accept that Scarlett was really gone. He didn't want to leave her, but he heard Day 2 announcements when they came on and realized he still had friends to find and try to protect, so he's finally able to say his goodbyes and depart.

Aiden wandered, and found the bell tower, where he was shocked by finding another corpse, Harold Porter's, left on a gurney in the open space in front of the tower. He was found by an old friend, Melanie Beckett. Her presence was calming for him, and he found himself able to talk relatively easily to her. They avoided the corpse, and approached the tower, where an escaping Wade Cartwright ran past them and away from the tower. Melanie alerted Aiden's attention to another newcomer, Serena Waters. Serena was nervous in their presence, and Aiden realized it was because of the blood on his clothes but he found it difficult to explain his innocence, so it fell to Melanie to get Serena to stay. They tried to enter the tower but found the body of Barry Banks, Aiden was especially repulsed and demanded they go elsewhere.

Aiden followed Serena and Melanie for the next two days, taking shelter in the cove with them and blindly following along with the girls whimsical and idealistic plans. They traveled to the vehicle depot on Day 4 to find use for Serena's assigned jeep keys, and while they were sneaking around they stumbled into an armed confrontation between Irene Djezari and Alvaro Vacanti. Alvaro shot Irene, murdering her before any of them could respond. Aiden was snapped out of his days-long stupor by sudden outrage and he followed the girls into battle, helping Melanie tackle and hold Alvaro down while Serena went for Irene's gun. The three of them hesitated once they had the upper hand, debating whether they should put Alvaro down for the greater good, and the pause allowed Alvaro to get out of Aiden and Melanie's grasp, retrieve his gun, and leave under cover of his gunfire. Melanie took off in pursuit, leaving Aiden and Serena behind. Frustrated, Serena handed the gun over to Aiden for safekeeping and approached the jeep she had spotted; to their surprise and excitement, the jeep started when she inserted the keys, and the two of them climbed in and took off.

They found Melanie near the slopes, and the three of them spent the night in slightly more comfort afforded by the vehicle. Come morning, they discussed their lack of plans and what they should do now. Aiden had started to resign himself to the situation, and he tried to cheer the girls, admitting that he would like to spend his last days enjoying himself. Serena still entertained notions of hunting the killers, which Melanie was opposed to, but their discussion came to nothing concrete and they set off again.

On the morning of Day 7, as they drove near the gym, Serena caught sight of Jeremiah Fury menacing Matthew Moradi and Bart Cappotelli. Assuming the worst since Jerry had killed twice previously, she ran him down. Aiden yelled out at her in shock once they stopped, and sat trying to figure out what to do with himself while Mel left the vehicle to confirm that Jerry was dead. Matt thanked them for killing Jerry and quickly left, encouraging Bart to stay with the others. Aiden wasn't sure about inviting Bart along, thinking of their low supplies. Bart went his own way eventually, leaving Aiden and the girls to contemplate what had happened.

The next day, they parked near the bell tower while Serena contemplated the fact that she had won that day's Best Kill Award and debated whether she should go and get it. Aiden encouraged her to do so and Mel didn't offer much protest; with that decided, Aiden opted to head to the top of the tower in hopes of enjoying the view and some peace and quiet for a while. Unbeknownst to him, Matt had arrived earlier, fresh off of two kills that day, and had concealed himself at the top of the tower with the intention of mugging Aiden for the shotgun he was carrying. When Aiden reached the top, Matt struck him in the head with a pipe, took the gun, and gave Aiden another blow to the head for good measure upon seeing that he hadn't been knocked out.

Disoriented and most likely suffering brain damage from the sudden blows, Aiden did the first thing he could think of to warn Serena and Melanie: he threw himself over the edge of the tower and landed near them, further injuring himself. Though the girls tried to save him, he was beyond treatment, only able to give them a jumbled warning about Matt before he expired.

Post-Game Evaluation: Damn asshole made me lose my bet, did he EVER even realize he had a friggin' weapon in his bag? - Dennis Lourvey

Memorable Quotes: "Please just tell me you guys are fuckin' with me; c'mon, I can't handle this, why can't y'all stop?" -- After Raina, Alice, and Johnny force him to confront the truth.

"I'm sorry, Scarls. Fuck, I'm... can you just say you forgive me? (...) Please, say something." -- Scarlett at this point is already dead.

"Hey Mel. I say don't worry. I mean odds are we don't do anything. Haven't done anything much yet, have we? Betcha those fuckers hate that we of all people ended up with the car. The Three Nothings."

Other/Trivia

 * D/N won the May '17 Best Death Award for Aiden's death, along with Malloon for the death of Benjamin Lichter.

Threads
Below is a list of threads that contain Aiden, in chronological order.

The Past:
 * Bare Necessities
 * Sing A Song Of Sixpence

V6 Pregame:
 * Aloha Heja He
 * Spotted Peckers: Black Ocean
 * Romeo And Juliet
 * What Are Little Boys Made Of?
 * It's Raining, It's Pouring
 * You Can't Roller Skate in A Buffalo Herd

Sadie Hawkins Dance:
 * Tiny Vessels
 * I Know What My Fortune Is

V6:
 * One For Sorrow
 * Imprimatura
 * Needles and Pins
 * これでいい.
 * Little Boy Blue
 * Nuts in May
 * Thursday's Child
 * How Can I Take Off This Mask?
 * Electric Dreams
 * You thought it was Kimiko but it was me, Jerry!
 * Open Your Eyes and Look North

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Aiden Slattery. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''

I generally don't do much commenting here, but guess I want to point out that I fully know I did crap-all with Aiden after adopting him and officially apologize for such! I thought he might be interesting to write. And admittedly I also thought it'd be good to have a second charrie to potentially swap for Kaitlyn. Guess I learned my lesson there, hoho. But he was a mess, I rarely had much time for him and didn't bother to develop him beyond having him muse on what a load he was, which didn't make him an enthralling character, I'm sure. I am glad I got to hero him out to save someone who was both a lot better and who'd put him with him for months, so that's something. If nothing else, let him be a lesson to myself and others: don't adopt unless you really truly want to write the character. - D/N